Remember my tip for sticking the Road Tax onto the windscreen? It does work, ok!

But then, knowing me, people seldom listen to me. Even when I am in a group during discussion, as soon as its my turn to talk I only get a few seconds of airtime (air... ha ha ha ha) before everyone realised I do not exist.

So, when my friend did his road tax last year, I told him about my method. But he did not listen, thinking his method is best. So, he stuck on a piece of transparent plastic intead. And this afternoon, he had a dilema. His transparent plastic has hardened from the Sun and curled up, along with the road tax stuck inside it. So, its either peeling the stupid fragil road tax off or just try to uncurl it.

Ha ha ha ha ha! I wanted to say, "I told you so" but its not worth it.

We were just about to finish our last minute shopping at Mid-Valley when my Wife was feeling a little bit hungry. The kind of "I want to eat something but not too filling" hungry. Since it was slightly after 10PM, the only place that was not shutting down was MacDonalds. So, I decided to get her some ice-cream.

At the queue, I noticed that the Clown has come up with some new Ice Cream menu. The rannge was called Flavour Burst or something and there are five flavours; Something Mocha, Raspberry, Pecan Butter, Apple something and Oranger Burst. So, I bought Pecan (myself), Apple (Wife) and Orange Burst (Mom). These are the normal RM1.00 Ice creams but with those flavours added to it. Give them some fancy wancy names and now, the Clown has the right to add another RM0.90 to your ice cream.

So, after handing out the ice-creams, my Mom made the mistake of giving a bit to the already sleepy Kristine. All it took was just one bite and everything went downhill. Before you can say "The running brown dog jumped over the grey fox with a pole", both of Kristine's hands were grabbing the ice cream tightly as if it was the only food left on Earth. Me: Here, you go. All your ice creams Wife: Thanks. *nyam nyam nyam* Mom: Thank you. Kristine, want to have a bite?Kristine: *lick... lick.. lick............chomp!* Mom: Oh-oh, she took the whole thing Me: Oh-oh! Wife:Oh-oh! Me: OK, let's just take it away from her. Sugar is not goodKristine: *nyam nyam mmnnbblmmbghh.......... GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR* Me: OK, Mom, you try Mom: ................. er, let's just leave her alone for a whileKristine: *nyam nyam nyam*

And throughout the rest of the (Mid)night, we can't sleep as Kristine is now very Wide Awake. Anyway, its now a proven fact they you should never give sugar to a baby, especially when you want to go to bed.

I just got back my car and she behaved better than norma. This is because one of the crew is a modder and he did something extra. :D

The bill was not as much as I though it would be since the pistons are all OK. So, let me put it this way; Its less than RM2,000K, with enough to buy an entry level Nokia Mobile Phone to boot. Anyway, I need to drive around for a few days to see if there are any problems. The problem in Malaysia is, once your car is out of the workshop, its perfect. But once you give it a few days, you can see the results. Still, I am happy anyway.

And the extras?

-He ported some areas-Redo the tappets-Serviced the brakes-And also the clutch-Plus many other things which I have yet to find out.

I popped by this morning and she is still not ready, though. I was hoping she would be ready by today because, it would be fun to test her on the road when I am needed to go to Langkawi on Monday morning. Sadly this is not to be so. The again, I don't think this is a good idea to stress the engine after being repaired.

Its like trying to jog 100 metres after recovering from a Heart by-pass.

Still, there are more work for the crew as they will need flush the radiator, fill in the Engine Oil, and other stuff and they're been hard at it whole days now. I hope there will be good news on Monday.

Some of them are already asking about my meters and other modifications. Oops.

Its already been two days and my car is still there. I was watching it from my office and if I am not mistaken, the height of my car on the lifts has dropped significantly. (Ha ha( Anyway, this morning they got the valves, and other parts from their supplier and by this afternoon, most of the engine block is almost repaired. Unfortunately, the cam pulley will have to go back to being original as the modified (secret) setting, was, well, you know, not according to specs. Still, they will try to reconstruct the engine back to normal specs and maybe put in a tweak or two.

You can still see my car in the background

This time, its really certified ORIGINAL parts

The mechanic has assembled the valves and is now moving onto the tappets

Anyway, the thing is, my car's timing belt broke. It snapped this morning while I was on my way to my customer in Cheras. I did not hear the "pop" sound of the belt snapping but there was a loud whining noice and then, the engine died. So, since we're on top of the flyover, I guided my car downhill, until we reached to a safe spot where where pushed it away from the traffic.

I called my mechanic and he came after an hour and told me that the timing belt has snapped.

So I called AAM to have it towed. After an hour, the guy came but on a bike. After some checking, he also confirmed the timing belt has snapped. So he called fo the tow-truck. Sigh.

After another hour, the tow-truck came and we reached the workshop by 1410. (3 hours) I was not happy because the belt snapped prematurely. Averagely, it would last me up to 70,000Km on average but this one failed at 40,000Km. Luckily I was driving at 50Km/h or so (I was busy teaching my technician while driving, la)

Opening the cover, you can see the belt which prematurely snapped at 40,oooKm

My car was too low for the tow truck's craneSo he had to borrow my jack

And just to be safe, he locked my left wheel

After so many bumps, my car is still with us

We had to use some rubber blocks to remove the crane

In the middle of the road, it became the area's talk of the hour

Opening the engine block, the damge is not so severe

But from this picture, the valves are gone

Here a closer look but I did not shoot the ones wherethe piston hit them

Thank goodness the pistons are ok

So far, after some dicussions with the crew, the damage are:1) valves are shot2) gasket needs to be changed3) Radiator needs to be flushed4) Engine oil needs to be changed5) More belts to change, plus the main culprit6) Spark plug cables melted (might as well do it now)7) 2-year old battery needs to be re-charged but needs to be monitored

That was one bad news. The other was that while I was calling AAM, I was so busy that I dropped my wallet (after they asked me for my AAM number), someone walked behind me and took it. Luckily, with the help of my friend, we found my wallet intact behind some distbins but minus the cash. Still that was one big relief. Imagine the hassle I would have to go through to cancel my Credit card, report for both my MyKAD and Driver's License, the ATM cards, etc.

Like both my friend and Wife said, I need to go to a temple and pray. Sigh

You know, my friend was right, "When you do not like a person/thing, you'll have a lot of negative things to say"

It happened when I finished my last call for the day, the customer passed me a Toshiba PDA as my colleague forgot to collect it for repair. So, I got it home and opened the box myself. After a few minutes of searching, I discovered that the small switch for the PDA's battery was off. (Andin the manual, you cannot do this because it would reset the PDA and deletes whatever you have so preciously stored in there.

Nice. And stupid

And the same goes when you need to use the WiFi and Bluetooth feature as well. You need to switch them on as well.

Nice and stupid.

All in all, after having my iPaq4350 for years, the Toshiba e830 is no different than the next cup of coffee after you drank your Ice Blended Caramel Mocha (or whatever you can get from Starbucks or Coffee Bean these days). In other words, it does the job but there is nothing good to look forward to.

Even my iPaq was faster despite having half the memory of the e830's 128MB

And the sound. Oh, God, The sound. Its like trying to use your Walkman earphones as speakers.

So, I am not too terribly excited with this piece of shit and I think they should stuck to making for reliable and expensive Notebooks. Even when I was a staff there, I would still not buy it. At the time when it first came out, it was ok enough to give HP a run for their money but after so many years there were no newer models. This shows how popular they are.

The good points? Oh, very well. Since there are so many bad points:1) It allows you to use CF Cards2) Its heavy enough to kill a cat if you throw at it3) Screen is crisp and sharp4) The cradle emits blue light at the base when charging.

Side by side, its slightly smaller than my iPaq4350

The screen is much bigger, though

The cradle which emits blue light in case you needto know that your PDA is charging at night

When the LCCT was opened in March 23, 2006, all local flights (OK, AirAsia) has been tranferred there. In other words, if you cannot pay for a decent fare, you have been punished by being forced to go to another place far far away from those well paying folks. Ha ha ha ha.

Anyway, the way to LCCT is a bit further, and if you look at the map, your first reaction would be, "What the Fuck! Its a Goddam big roundabout!". The LCCT is situated along the way to the F1 circuit and is the next neighbour to the KLIA's cargo area. So, imagine the taxi fares and the extra time you need (Not sure about the cost but the Limo charged me RM10 extra). Anyway, its already near to three weeks and there is complains about not enough space at the LCCT. Which is good news for business, methinks.

So, KLIA will be a bit "emptier" from now on. And because of the LCCT, I don't think I will be going the way of ERL unless they build a connection stop there.

This is the scene that welcomes you as soon as you step off the Taxi

This is the scene that welcomes you as soon as you open the doors

I don't know what the heck is Asian Kitchen but...

From the same decorations with the Clownhouse,its almost a bit confusing at early in the morning

Its 0445am in the morning and already there is a long line

People are queuing up to queue up

The whole building looked as if its one big container

Once you checked in, the waiting area is quite niceIt has its own shops, with a few more on the way

This is very nice.

You buy the food in the plastic boxes, they do something to it,you pay the money and sit outside for other people to look at

Why they heck they sell shoes here, I will never understandUnless its for people who walked all the way from KLIA........

Nice water dispenser whing outside the toilets.People would think this is a baby washer.Maybe if you drink at some funny angles, you can peep into the toilets

After missing my flight for the first time last month, this time I am going to make sure I get to the airport on time. No more ERLs, no more driving, and not even a bad case of diarrhea will stop me. Yes, this time, I am going to get the Airport Limo to drive me there. Since the flight is 0705 on AirAsia, I have requested to be picked up at 0430. I have made the calls twice and confirmed the booking as well and just for safety, I pushed the time further to 0400.

And as you know it, Muprhy's Law set into action. You see, the Limo driver was already in Bangsar at 0400 but got lost in Lucky Garden. After some frantic calls, to the Limo Centre, finally did he came but through Jalan Maaroff (Bangsar's Main Road).

Throughout the drive, even with the tempered glass separating us, I can still hear the Centre scolding the driver for getting lost. So, to compensate, he drove quite fast, which I think in the region of 150 to 165kmh. Luckily there were ot much traffic in the early hours of the morning.

But once we arrived at LCCT, he kept on apologising to me, which I said is alright since we still have time. All the seat grabbing and excitement for only RM84.40 (Extra RM10 to the LCCT).

This is the insides of an Airport Limo

And its going very fast

Even a Bengwira cannot catch it

Nor a speeding Perdana

But wait, whats this?

The speedo is not working and Idon't even want to know the speed!Really!

The PJ Seafood resaturant is a very nice place to go to, unless you have a real reason to go to Teluk Gong for the "Lai Lieu Har Mai Fan" (I don't know how to say this in English, and you do not need to know except eat it for the first time and get hooked). The main reason why we go there is because of the crabs. And my favourite was the Milk+Cheese crab. This restaurant is situated next to the new Condos nearby the Tropicana entrance. And if you're on the NKVE Highway, you can spot their signboard. And its also not easy to miss too. Ha ha ha.

Eversince in the mid-90's it was already there and originally, it was on the (then) empty plot of land where it was also used as a man-made fishing pond. After the Millenium, they relocated and some 100 metres away sans fishing pond. Anyway, it was sort of our favourite place to go on special occasions.

So, on the night before I was due to fly to Sibu,we decided to have dinner with my Sis, who justcame back for a few days

As usual, I ordered my fav, which is milk+cheese crab

As soon as the food arrived, the fireflies cameAnd they flew like Kamikaze pilots, aiming for the food

And they were crawling everywhereI mean, EVERYWHERE

The cicaks (geckos/lizards) were having a nice time as well

Some bright guy decided to hang some chillies(but I am not sure if he needs to cut them open or not)

The first chilli did not work, so he added more

And and the fireflies are still......... flyingAnd spreaded to the other tables in the middle

In the end, they decided to swith off all the lightsWhich by this time, we had finished our dinner,maybe with a firefly or two inside our stomachs.